Through badge engineering, the Volkswagen Sharan shares the same platform with the SEAT Alhambra, and the first generation was also in most respects identical to the Ford Galaxy.

[1][2][3] The Sharan was the Volkswagen-badged product from a joint venture between Volkswagen and Ford Motor Company to produce vehicles in the increasingly important MPV market, which was filled at the time by Renault's Espace and Chrysler's Voyager.

[4] The resulting Volkswagen Sharan concept (and Ford Galaxy) was shown at the 1994 Paris Auto Show,[5] and production started in May 1995.

[7] Development began in top-secret in 1987, known only to the highest level members of the respective companies, with a team consisting of Ford's Steve Harper, Paul Coucill, and Volkswagen's Peter Knapp.

All variants were produced at the joint venture's plant AutoEuropa in Portugal, alongside the closely related Ford Galaxy.

[9] As of 2007, the annual production for the Sharan is in the 50,000 unit range; it is sold in Europe, South Africa and some Asia Pacific and Latin American countries.

[13] Although quality problems existed in the original version, the Sharan quickly became the best selling MPV in Germany.

The original Sharan was launched in August 1995, and was available with five engine choices: *The 2.8 VR6 model had the option of Syncro all-wheel drive.

The design was a compromise solution, with the front looking similar to a Ford Mondeo Mk1 and the rear like Volkswagen Passat (B4).

*Available option - 4motion AWD with 6 speed manual transmissionA further minor cosmetic facelift was implemented in September 2003 at Frankfurt Motor Show for the model year of 2004.

In 2006, Ford independently introduced a new Galaxy which was not based on the Sharan and Alhambra designs from the Volkswagen Group.

In June 2006, PrinceGas[22] and Volkswagen launched the Sharan with a 2.0 L 85 kW (114 hp) flexible fuel engine, which could work with either petrol or autogas (liquified petroleum gas), providing an additional 450 km (280 mi) range over the regular 2.0L petrol engine.

[31] Its 2.0 litre TSi engine (220 PS (217 hp; 162 kW), 350 N⋅m (258 lb⋅ft)) and six speed direct-shift gearbox are the same as in the 2016 Golf GTi.